the republic, a fake out, oilio and shutter island

first off, woohoo for nice, sunny, snow-free weather!

saturday lunch found us at olio. our first time, although i have wanted to stop by to check it out since the wedding of the owners (still the same owners? not sure) was featured in richmond bride back during my own wedding planning days. i recently started following them on twitter, and them had to go in when i saw they had cucumber dill soup. yum! unfortunately, no cucumber dill on saturday, but plenty of cheese! which we bought from the deli and which i had in the le fromage sandwich. this was described to me as "an adult grilled cheese." and it so was. a melted cheese trifecta of provolone, swiss and cheddar snuggled with roasted tomatoes and red peppers, balsamic and garlic aioli. the best part was that i shopped for staples like polenta and cheese (both cheeses were a little dry when i cut them today) and packaged house-made marinara while i waited for my lunch. i had tuscan white bean salad for a side which was redolent with basil and tomato. so good. i wanted to go back sunday, but were  closed. i will be back this week.  my only complaint is that they should upgrade their cheese selection a bit. however, they offered to special order cheeses for me. and i got a tweet that they sell ashley farms chicken, this may be my new favorite place.

my brother and sister in law were in town saturday night and i suggested louisiana flair after receiving a tweet that they were open until 6pm. we showed up at 5:30 and were turned away at the door and rudely told that they were closed as i screamed "that's not what your twitter said!" to chef nate as the door was locked in our face. so, we had to repack the very hungry niece and nephew in the car, had a mini don't-wanna-get-back-in-the-carseat-so-soon meltdown, and wound up at vietnam 1. so i called out louisiana flair on twitter. they replied by saying sorry and they would talk to the boss (who i assume is chef nate?) about it. which is fine, except that the chef was they one doing the turning away. hmph! an update: got a direct message from them this morning saying that i could get the twitter special (bring a friend and your meal is 1/2 off). update redux: received a blog comment (see below), the twitter was an error and closing time on saturday is 4 pm.

sunday morning saw us at a nearly empty the republic. my veggie frittata (hold the 'shrooms) was tasty with dollops of goat cheese but it was was flat, not poufy. more like egg crepes. onions were in the eggs but the other veg was dotted around the top. had a great bloody mary (ordered "spicy, very spicy"). bartender set it down telling me to let him know if i wanted it spicier. could have done, but decided to give my tummy a break. later on,  i mentioned to him that it could have used some horseradish and he told me to tell him next time and he would do. i like him....jr, maybe??? i asked, but forgot in our rush to get to the start of...

shutter island... one of the best movies i have seen in a long time. there's a twist, most of which i predicted (because mr. scorsese can't out-crazy someone that's already a bit nutty) , but which is interesting and complex.  a good time, for sure. i even liked it despite disliking leo dicaprio's for his eco-alarmism, and he portrayed quite a sympathetic character in the end. i liked it despite the fake boston accent. the trailer makes it look more scary-horrific than it is. but then again, i thought silence of the lambs was funny, so you can't judge by me.